The Cock and the Falcon
Once upon a time, at the edge of an old forest where cool waters flowed, there was a huge farm. On this farm lived a clever rooster with gleaming feathers and a proud hawk that glided over the high cliffs of the mountains. Every morning the rooster ate the freshest grains of wheat from the farmer's palm and rested peacefully in his safe coop. The hawk, on the other hand, beat its wings in the free waters of the sky and watched every movement in the valley carefully with its sharp eyes. One day the proud hawk glided down on its broad wings and landed silently on the wooden fence of the farm. For a long time the hawk had been curious about the flustered ways of the rooster, who fled the moment he saw his owner's hand. Giving in to his curiosity, the hawk tilted his head to one side and looked down at the rooster reproachfully.
"You roosters are such ungrateful and cowardly creatures," he began to say in his booming voice. "Humans feed you every day with their own hands, build you warm coops and carefully protect you from every kind of danger." "And yet, whenever they come near you, you scatter into every corner screaming and wailing." "Look at me: I am the wild bird of the mountains, yet the moment a man calls me I land proudly on his arm." The clever rooster listened calmly to the hawk's loud and self-assured words right to the end. He puffed out his chest, looked at the hawk and answered with a deep sigh. "My dear friend, in your eyes our flight may look like ingratitude, but the truth is not like that at all."
The rooster turned his eyes towards the smoke rising from the big kitchen behind the farm. "Have you ever seen a hawk put on a spit and roasted over the fire?" he asked. The hawk shook his head in astonishment and said that he had never seen such a sight before. With a bitter smile the rooster said, "But we roosters see every day how our relatives are cooked in the oven." "Our flight comes not from ingratitude, but from a rightful caution brought by the bitter experiences we have lived." Not knowing what to say before this truth, the proud hawk fell into an embarrassed silence and took off towards the sky. Before judging the behaviour of other creatures, one must understand the hidden dangers and pains they have experienced. Once bitten, twice shy.